Gun training control mechanism



Dec. 20, 1960 c w. MUSSER ETAL 2,965,002

cum TRAINING CONTROL MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 25, 1958 INVENTORS ALBERT BENDITT C WALTON MUSSER BY W EMJQ-J w Dec. 20, 1960 c w. MUSSER ET AL 2,965,002

GUN TRAINING CONTROL MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 25, 1958 INVENTORS ALBERT BENDITT BY 0 WALTON MUSSER j a. JQ MV M Dec. 20, 1960 c w. MussER ET AL 2,965,002

GUN TRAINING CONTROL MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 25, 1958 Dec. 20, 1960 c w. MUSSER ET AL 2,965,002

GUN TRAINING CONTROL MECHANISM Filed July 25, 1958 Fig. 5

INVENTORS 33 ALBERT BENDITT BY 0 WALTON MUSSER United States Patent Office 2,965,002 Patented Dec. 20, 1960 GUN TRAINING CONTROL MECHANISM C Walton Musser, Beverly, Mass., and Albert Benditt, Philadelphia, Pa., assignors to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army Filed July 25, 1958, Ser. No. 751,098

s Claims. c1. 89-41) (Granted under Title 35, US. Code (1952), sec. 266) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to gun control mechanisms, and more particularly to an improved gun control mechanism wherein the handwheels heretofore used for elevating and traversing the gun are replaced by a single control lever.

This improved gun control mechanism enables a gunner to track .a target more accurately and with less fatigue than heretofore. Thus, instead of operating two handwheels in different directions at the same time and then taking one hand off the handwheels to fire the gun, the mechanism of the present invention is operated by the right hand, the left hand being free to steady the gun and fire it when it is on the target. A further advantage of this improved gun control mechanism is that the cant of the entire gun mount does not affect the aiming of the gun for the reason that the movement of the axis of the gun barrel conforms to the movement of the control lever.

As hereinafter explained in greater detail, this single control lever is arranged for elevation and transverse movement, and is so coupled to the gun that the axis of its barrel moves in accordance with the movement of the lever. This coupling between the gun and its control lever is so designed that the movement of the gun barrel is a reduced scale replica of the movement of the lever over a predetermined range of movement and is an exact replica of the movement of the lever outside this range. An important feature is the provision of means for adjusting the coupling between the control lever and gun to a condition such that the gun barrel moves with the control lever for manual movement of the gun until it is approximately on the target. 4

The invention will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings and its scope is indicated by the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the gun,

Fig. 2 is a top view of the gun,

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the gun support and operating mechanism,

Fig. 4 is a section taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3,

Fig. 4A is a section taken on the line 4A-4A of Fig. 4,

Fig. 5 is a section taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 6 illustrates certain details of the means for clamping the gun to its support.

In Fig. 1 is illustrated a gun which is supported on a tripod 10 and has a barrel 11, a chamber 12, a spotting rifle 13, a telescope 14 and a handle 15. Associated with the handle 15 are the control elements (not shown) of a firing mechanism which may be either electrical or mechanical and is connected to its control element through a conduit 16. A control lever 17 affords Vernier control of traverse and elevation completely free from cant effects. As hereinafter explained, depression of a button 18 at the outer end of the control lever 17 places the gun mount in free traverse, and overtravel of the lever 17 in any direction automatically places the mount in free traverse.

The tripod support of the gun is provided with wheel 19 on one of its legs, the other two legs 20 and 21 being provided with hinged extensions 22 and 23 which may be unfolded as indicated by the dash-dot lines of Fig. 2 for moving the gun in the form of a wheelbarrow or may be folded as indicated by the full lines of Fig. 2 for clamping the gun to a jeep. As shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 6, the gun is clamped to its mount by means of a member 25 and a quick disconnect device 24 in a well-known manner.

The support for the gun includes a member 26 to which the legs are attached by means of bolts 27. Supported on roller bearings 32 and 33 rotatably mounted within the member 26 are members 28 having a cylindrical extension portion 60, and 29, these two members being hinged together by a pin 30. With this arrangement, the member 28 is rotated about a vertical axis for transverse movement of the gun and the member 29 is rotated about the pin 30 for elevation movement of the gun. Between the members 28 and 29 is interposed a spiral spring 31 for balancing the gun. Alinement of the member 28 within the member 26 is maintained by roller bearings 33.

It will be noted that the member 26 has its upper end so formed as to provide a spherical bearing surface 34. Arranged to engage this bearing surface are a friction ring 35 and a friction ring 36 which has a spherical extension 38 and a wiping ring 39. At their right hand ends the friction rings 35 and 36 are held together by a self-locking screw 40. The body of this screw fits somewhat loosely in the lower half of the friction ring so as to permit the spherical portions 34 to aline the friction rings. This screw thus determines the proper adjustment for the two friction rings in their relationship with the bearing surface 34.

Fig. 4A illustrates the means for pressing the friction rings 35 and 36 toward each other. Two self-locking screws 41 are located at an angle of 30 on each side of the end ball 38 of the lower friction ring 36. A spring 42 supplies the force for pushing the two friction rings together. After the screws 41 are adjusted to suitably compress the springs 42, all adjustments are effected by the clamping screw 40. The screw 40 is drawn sufiiciently tight to ensure that the two friction rings are clamped against the spherical bearing surface 34 when an actuation pin 43 (hereinafter described) is in its illustrated position. It should not be drawn so tight that the two friction rings will not be fully released from the spherical bearing surface when the end 18 of a plunger 44, extending through the operating lever 17, is depressed.

The plunger 44 is provided at inner end with an elliptical surface 51 which bears against a ball 45 resting against a cam-shaped recess 52 at the outer end of the actuating pin 43. This cam-shaped recess 52 has a contour such that movement of the lever 17 vertically through an angle of 15 in either direction or horizontally in either direction through an angle of 30 forces the wedge end of the actuating pin 43 between a pair of rollers 46 and disengages the friction rings 35 and 36 from the bearing surface 34. Under these conditions, the barrel 11 has a movement which is a direct replica of the movement of the lever.

The lever 17 has its inner end in the form of a hollow sphere 47 which is supported in a concave bearing formed in an extension 48 of the gun support. Slidably arranged on inner surface of the sphere 47 is a split collet 49.

A spring 50 interposed between the members 47 and 49 functions to press the member 49 into contact with the ball 38 and to press the member 47 into engagement with the member 48. This spring is provided to load the split collet so that the two ball socket joints, the large one on the outside of the part 47 and the small one formed by the part 38, have sufiicient bearing pressure to retain the operating lever 17 in any position to which it is adjusted. A split collet is used in order to take care of clearances and tolerances in manufacture.

The vernier adjustment of the gun is obtained by having the center of the large ball 47 rotate in the nature of a ball and socket joint around the center of the small ball 38 which is frictionally attached to the fixed spherical surface 34. In the particular design illustrated, the center of the ball 47 is spaced approximately .288 inch from the center of the ball 38 and the ball 38 is spaced 4% inches from the center of the spherical bearing surface 34. With these dimensions, rotation of the ball 47 through an angle of 17 moves the gun through an angle of 1.

In order to permit this type of vernier control, the control lever 17 is limited in motion with respect to the gun support as previously indicated so that it can travel horizontally only 30 on either side of its central position and vertically only 15 on either side of its central position. Beyond these limits the gun is in free traverse and free elevation, the friction rings 35 and 36 being disengaged by the movement of the control lever 47 to a position where it operates through the ball and the camshaped recess 52 of the actuating pin 43 to force the balls 46 apart and disengage the friction rings as previously indicated.

The control mechanism of the present invention thus affords a Vernier adjustment over a limited range and provides means whereby the gun is in free traverse and free elevation in response either to overtravel of the control lever or to a manual adjustment which permits a quick movement of the gun to an approximate bearing of the target.

We claim:

1. The combination of a gun, a support for said gun comprising a first member, having a concave bearing surface extension portion, rigidly fastened to said gun, and a second member pivoted to said first member on a horizontal axis, and having a cylindrical extension portion rotatable about a substantially vertical axis, means providing a fixed spherical bearing surface encircling said support, a pair of friction rings engaging said spherical bearing surface, one of said rings having a spherical extension, a single operating lever in frictional engagement with said concave bearing surface extension portion of said first member for elevation and transverse movement, a pair of rollers interposed between said rings at one of their sides, an actuating pin extending through said spherical extension and having one of its ends wedge shaped, said pin extending between said rollers and said pin at the other of its ends being provided with a cam shaped recess, a plunger extending through said lever and having at its inner end an elliptical surface, and a ball interposed between said elliptical surface and said camshaped recess, whereby a motion which is imparted to said gun is a reduced scale replica of the movement of said lever over a predetermined range of movement, and an exact replica of the movement of said lever over any range of movement in excess of said predetermined range of movement.

2. The combination of a gun, a support for said gun comprising a first member, having a concave bearing surface extension portion, rigidly fastened to said gun, and a second member pivoted to said first member on a horizontal axis, and having a cylindrical extension portion rotatable about a substantially vertical axis, means providing a fixed spherical bearing surface encircling said support, a pair of friction rings engaging said spherical bearing surface, one of said rings having a spherical extension, a single operating lever in frictional engagement with said concave bearing surface extension portion of said first member for elevation and transverse movement, having its inner end in the form of a hollow sphere, said concave bearing surface fixed to said support and engaging the outer surface of said hollow sphere, a split collet interposed between an inner surface of said hollow sphere and the outer surface of said spherical extension, and a spring interposed between said collet and an inner surface of said hollow sphere and said collet for maintaining said collet in engagement with said hollow sphere and said spherical extension.

3. The combination of a gun, a support for said gun comprising a first member, having a concave bearing surface extension portion, rigidly fastened to said gun, and a second member pivoted to said first member on a horizontal axis, and having a cylindrical extension portion rotatable about a substantially vertical axis, means providing a fixed spherical bearing surface encircling said support, a pair of friction rings engaging said spherical bearing surface, one of said rings having a spherical extension, a single operating lever having its inner end in the form of a hollow sphere, a split collet interposed be tween an inner surface of said hollow sphere and the outer surface of said spherical extension, a spring interposed between said collet and an inner surface of said hollow sphere and said collet for maintaining said collet in engagement with said hollow sphere and said spherical extension, a plunger extending through said lever and having at its inner end an elliptical surface, a pair of rollers interposed between the sides of said friction rings, an actuating pin having one of its ends wedge shaped, said pin extending between said rollers and said pin at the other of its ends being provided with a cam-shaped recess, a ball interposed between said elliptical surface and said cam-shaped recess, the contour of said cam-shaped recess being such that said friction rings are disengaged from said spherical bearing surface when said lever has been moved a distance in excess of a predetermined amount.

4. The combination of a gun, a support for said gun comprising a first member, having a concave bearing surface extension portion, rigidly fastened to said gun, and a second member pivoted to said first member on a horizontal axis, and having a cylindrical extension portion rotatable about a substantially vertical axis, means providing a fixed spherical bearing surface encircling said support, a pair of friction rings engaging said spherical bearing surface, one of said rings having a spherical extension, a pair of rollers interposed between said rings at a point adjacent to the base of said spherical extension, an actuating pin extending through said spherical extension and having its inner end wedge-shaped and extending between said rollers, and said pin at its outer end being provided with a cam-shaped recess, an operating lever having its inner end in the form of a hollow sphere, said concave bearing surface extension portion fixed to said support and engaging the outer surface of said hollow sphere, a split collet interposed between the inner surface of said hollow sphere and said spherical extension, a spring interposed between said collet and an inner surface of said hollow sphere for maintaining said collet in engagement with said hollow sphere and said spherical extension, a plunger extending through said lever and having an elliptical surface at its inner end, and a ball interposed between said elliptical surface and the cam-shaped end of said actuating pin whereby said friction rings are disengaged from said spherical bearing surface either in response to pressure upon the outer end of said plunger or in response to overtravel of said lever.

5. A combination as in claim 4, having resilient means between said first and second members for keeping said gun in balance after said friction rings have been disengaged from said spherical bearing surface.v

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,458,956 Motley Jan. 11, 1949 2,459,159 Glassman Jan. 18, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 541,767 Great Britain Feb. 14, 1941 

